SkyWing Tales: Ferocious: Book III: The Dream
by Quarx-Rylzma
Summary: Nine dragons have the same dream. How shall it unfold? Warning: Some of the content shall completely contradict what canon so far says! Please read and review. (WARING!: ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!)
1. Chapter 1

_Prologue: Frostbite_

It was nearly sunset and Frostbite was dead tired. Though rare in IceWings, he was born with the inability to use Freezing Death Breath. When his parents found out about his disability, they shipped him off to the military, at the age of seven, hoping he could be of some use there. Though he put forth most of his effort into his training and on the battlefield, Frostbite never fully appreciated killing other dragons nor military life.

Frostbite was currently flying to his assigned sleeping quarters, which was in a cave near the IceWing and SandWing Kingdoms' borders, which he also shared with the rest of his company. He was also reviewing his schedule for tomorrow's training exercises.

Without warning, Frostbite's eyelids felt heavy with an ineffable feeling of drowsiness. He banked to the right sharply and began losing altitude. He couldn't straighten out because of the sudden, ineffable feeling of the lack of energy. He had to get to his cave before the drowsiness took over.

Unluckily, Frostbite's eyelids closed all the way, a couple hundred feet from the entrance of the cave, and he began to plummet from the sky.

Luckily, though, Frostbite managed to hit a soft snow drift, that stopped him completely, before he ran into the very same mountain he was flying towards. He didn't suffer a single injury.

_Chapter I_

Ferocious was in a strange room. The room in question was cubicle, with a large, round table in the center. The room was dimly lit, with absolutely no light sources to be seen. The walls and ceiling looked as if they were made of stone, though Ferocious knew they were not. On the opposite wall, across from Ferocious, was a pair of golden double doors.

Ferocious perfectly understood that he was only dreaming. Yet the dragons, that he just noticed sitting around the table at perfect distances from each other, looked so real. Ferocious guessed, very accurately, that the other dragons around the table must be dreaming the same dream also.

To his right, Ferocious saw a confused SeaWing that was apparently part of the SeaWing royal family, hence the stripes he saw. To his left, he saw the same RainWing queen that interrupted his lovely rub with his Sparkles the day before. Across from him, Ferocious saw two, very unusual SkyWings, with copper scales with gold streaks, obviously twins born with too much fire or no fire at all. Next to them was a confused-looking IceWing and a defective SandWing. Also around the table was a MudWing and a scared-looking NightWing.

Ferocious knew that the other dragons were scared and confused, but he didn't mind. Besides, he was the only one who knew why nine different dragons were having the same dream.

_Thirteen years ago..._

It was the worst scene in his life. His mother, Rouge, lying on a fresh battlefield, with a large scar running down her side. It was mid-afternoon, when Ferocious landed by her side, her breathing was ragged, yet she still lived.

"Mother, is there anything I can do for you?" he asked drastically.

Sadly, Rouge shook her head. Ferocious took one of her talons into one of his and hoped that it would be a quick death for his mother.

Quite suddenly, with the rest of her strength, she lifted her other talon and pointed at the satchel around her neck.

Her satchel, that she always carried with her, whose contents was unknown to him, was hanging loosely around her neck. Her last words were, "Take. Memorise. Burn."

_What does it contain?_ Ferocious thought. _Top secret documents from Queen Scarlet? A weapon? No, it has to contain a scroll, according to the size and shape._

Ferocious took the satchel off his mother's neck as she took her last breath and grew limp. Ferocious then closed his eyes briefly and silently mourned for his mother. He then took off and headed for the SkyWing army camp that was set up next to the battlefield, near his home. He landed next to Kestrel, who was yelling at a young recruit, and said simply, "I need to talk to you."

Kestrel stopped yelling, turned towards Ferocious, and asked with surprise clearly in her voice, "Is it that serious?"

Ferocious nodded gravely. Kestrel flinched. "Let me finish yelling, real quick," she said quickly.

When Kestrel was finished yelling, she and Ferocious flew off to their assigned sleeping quarters in another part of the camp. Ferocious showed her the satchel.

"My mother carried this everywhere ever since the beginning of the war. I do not know what it contains, but it is obviously very important to her," Ferocious explained. "My best guess is that it contains top secret documents from Queen Scarlet. Either that, or it contains something very important to her."

"Obviously," commented Kestrel. "But why would Queen Scarlet entrust a top-secret scroll to a common soldier? That's not her."

"Of course," Ferocious stated. "That's why I want to open the satchel up now."

Before Kestrel could protest, Ferocious took a claw and opened up the satchel by cutting a hole in the side. When Ferocious was satisfied with the length of the opening, that he had made, he reached into the satchel and grabbed the object inside. It was definitely a scroll, because he felt the soft parchment in his talon. He pulled it out and looked at the seal he had just noticed.

It was just a plain red wax seal, no official seal of the SkyWing Queen or anything. Just a featureless seal.

Ferocious looked at Kestrel. "It's definitely not a top-secret document," Ferocious observed obviously.

Kestrel was slightly annoyed. "Well, what is it?"

Ferocious responded calmly with, "Let's find out." He broke the seal, opened it, and read the title to Kestrel: "Something Very Important About the 'Dragonet Prophecy' that Morrowseer Delivered." Ferocious then looked at Kestrel and said, simply and plainly, "Cave."

They both took off, told their general where they were going, then headed towards the cave, in which he lived his whole life in. When they landed, they went to their sleeping quarters, in which they spent much time together before being forced into the SkyWing army and fighting for his least favorite SandWing princess. Not that she was big and scary, he just didn't like her personality.

When Ferocious and Kestrel arrived in their sleeping quarters, Ferocious unrolled the rest of the scroll and saw it was written by his mother, that it was of decent length, and it was also written for just him. He decided to read it aloud anyway.

Before Ferocious opened his mouth, he was pulled out of his trip down memory lane by NightWing female voice saying, "Welcome, Dragons of Destiny."


	2. Chapter 2

Dragonets of Destiny?" piped up the defective SandWing.

Ferocious decided to answer for the SandWing. "Of course not," he replied. "The prophecy that Morrowseer delivered eighteen years ago were merely instructions of the retrieval of your and All nine dragons were now staring at the NightWing with amazement. Except for Ferocious, who stared at her with complete calm.

It was a while before anyone talked. The the SandWing broke the silence.

"Do you mean theyour friend's eggs. And the RainWing egg was not just a back-up."

"Really?" piped up the IceWing. "I never thought that the dragonet prophecy was actually just gathering instructions."

"Well, now, thanks to you, we-" started the SeaWing princess.

The young NightWing interjected. "It doesn't matter," he said in a slightly annoyed voice. "What really matters is that, when Morrowseer finds out about this new prophecy, we'll have a new, powerful enemy on our hands. He'll not accept this at all." Everyone was now looking at him. "The most important thing to do right now is to find and rescue me from the NightWing Kingdom." After that, he shrank back from the table.

After a moment of complete silence, where everyone just stared at the young NightWing, waiting for him to continue, the much older NightWing broke it.

"Now, Starflight is right. Your first priority should be rescuing him from the NightWing Kingdom," she said to the other eight dragons. "Now let's introduce ourselves." Everybody, but Ferocious, groaned. "I'll go first. My name is Fateweaver. What's your name?" she asked the SkyWing to her left.

The SkyWing hesitated for a moment. "My name's Copper." He turned towards the IceWing on his left. "What's your name?"

The IceWing sighed. "My name's Frostbite." Without turning, he said, "What's your name?" to the RainWing.

The RainWing responded quite quickly. "Queen Glory," she said majestically, also. She turned towards the defective SandWing. "What's your name?" she rather said than asked.

The SandWing clearly had excitement in her voice. "Sunny!" she proclaimed loudly. She turned to Ferocious. "What's your name?"

"Ferocious," he stated calmly. He turned to the princess. "Who are you?"

"Tsunami," she said coldly. "And, if you lay a talon on any of my friends, you'll find yourself in a world of pain."

Ferocious feared no evil from her. He actually kind of liked her. "O.K.," he responded.

Then, Tsunami went on asking the MudWing's name. The MudWing responded with, "I'm Clay."

He then turned towards the young NightWing and asked for his name. He simply replied with, "Starflight," before going back into his muteness.

The SkyWing next to Starflight hesitated for a moment then said, "Peril," quite shyly.

A hostile look came across both Glory's and Tsunami's face. It seemed apparent to Ferocious that these dragonets have met the SkyWing. And their meeting did not go very well.

"Now, Dragonets of Destiny," Ferocious stated, with false majesty in his voice, "when we awake, meet me in Webs' room by high noon, so-"

"Who are you to boss us around, like Kestrel?" Tsunami interjected.

"I'm Kestrel's former mate, thank you very much," Ferocious said calmly.

This statement shocked everybody, except Frostbite, Copper, and Fateweaver.

Now seeing that he had their respect and attention, Ferocious continued, "Now that I have your attention, when we meet up in Webs' room, we shall talk up a plan to rescue Starfloat, or whoever, from the NightWings."

Tsunami, Glory, and Sunny giggled at what Ferocious called Starflight and Starflight shrank away some more. If he was a RainWing, his scales would've been redder than Ferocious'.

After a while of giggling, Fateweaver decided to end the meeting here. "O.K. Now that we know each other's name, I think we all should get some rest, before our second meeting." Fateweaver then pulled out an amulet that Ferocious immediately recognized as the Dream Connecter. It is a very rare artifact that enabled multiple dragons to meet one another in the same dream. It looked like two golden RainWings that are connected by a short, golden rod, through the mouth. When Fateweaver disconnected the two, golden dragons, the dream ended.

Ferocious woke up. When he did, the three moons were nearly set, he was still in the same room, and Sprinkles was still cuddled up next to him, sound asleep. Nothing has changed.

At least, not drastically.

Ferocious closed his eyes and off to sleep...again.


	3. Chapter 3

Frostbite laid there in the same snow drift that he crash-landed when he suddenly fell asleep for, what it seemed then, some ineffable reason. When he did, he had a strange dream about a NightWing, named Fateweaver, and eight other dragons. Fateweaver then proceeded to tell them that they were part of a prophecy. When she said this, he thought this would be a good excuse to desert the IceWing army.

They then proceeded to tell each other their names. One of the dragons, or rather, dragonets, was a queen, which was rather odd, because he usually doesn't think of dragon queens being dragonets.

The next thing he knew, the dream had ended.

Frostbite opened his eyes. He was covered in snow from head to forelegs. Frostbite got up, with the snow sliding off of him, and stretched. Though he has a few scars marking him here and there, Frostbite's visage was quite appealing and handsome.

After stretching his wings, he looked up and saw that Pyrrhia's three moons have hidden behind the mountain that the rest of his company, The Snowflakes, were assigned to sleep in. Must be early morning, he thought. Best join the others.

But, before he could stretch his wings out, he felt somebody tugging at his tail. He turned around and flinched. Behind him, was an ice-blue, female dragon, about his own age and is in his company. Her name was Evergreen.

Evergreen had a worried-tired look on her face. "What are you doing here, Frostbite?" Evergreen asked curiously and tiredly.

"Well, I...I…," Frostbite stammered nervously. "I just fell asleep on my way here."

The curious-tired that just came across Evergreen's face strengthened with each passing minute. "Why did you suddenly fall asleep while flying? That's not you at all," Evergreen plainly observed.

"Well, I-I-I-I, um," Frostbite stammered again, embarrassing himself._ I, what genius? Frostbite thought to himself. I suddenly had a dream that I had to go to?_

Evergreen's expression changed, quite suddenly, from that of curiosity-tired to romantically-tired. She then walked next to Frostbite, sat next to him, and began rubbing her neck up against his. "Just tell me when we get back to the cave, with the rest of the Flakes, and get some rest, O.K.?"

Frostbite didn't know how to tell Evergreen. He _had_ to tell her. If she didn't know about the dream, about his new destiny, he might just lose his mate, if he didn't tell her and just left her on her own in the IceWing army. His beautiful mate. The perfect mate. And his only friend.

"Evergreen," Frostbite said calmly and quietly. He did enjoy saying her name, especially in the way he just said it. "What if I told you that I have to desert the army and go to the RainWing Kingdom?"

Evergreen stopped rubbing her neck against Frostbite's and looked into his eyes, with hers, in which Frostbite clearly saw her answer which was, "Either take me with or stay here with me."

Frostbite thought for a moment, in which he pondered her answer, then finally concluded, "You may, _if_ you are ready to go on a dangerous journey, understand?"

Evergreen nodded.

"Good," Frostbite stated. He looked at the horizon. A couple beams of light were coming from the east: the beginnings of dawn. "We'd better get going now," he said to Evergreen. "Either that or find a hiding place to rest up."

After deciding upon the latter option., they eventually found a cave, located a good ways away from their company's, and rested there for the day.

High noon…

Ferocious and Sprinkles were romantically talking to each other in Webs' room, with Webs bathing in the pool, questioning their sanity, when Clay, Glory, Tsunami, and Sunny walked in, who were then was so surprised to find a RainWing and a SkyWing romantically interested in each other and also wondered if this was the same SkyWing that told them to meet him in the dream that they had.

Ferocious noted their presence and effectively stopped talking to Sprinkles to look and examine each of the dragonets with with a completely calm expression that told the dragonets immediately that this SkyWing wanted and demanded respect, no matter what. When several minutes of complete and utter silence passed, Ferocious broke it.

"Welcome, Clay, Glory, Tsunami, Sunny," Ferocious calmly greeted.

Another minute of complete, utter silence. Then, "Who's that you're with?" Tsunami said, pointing at Sprinkles.

"That's my wife, Sparkles," Ferocious stated clearly.

"Call me Sprinkles," Sprinkles said.

"Now that we all know each other, we can now start on a plan of rescuing Starflirt-"

"Starflight," Tsunami corrected, but couldn't hold down the giggles that erupted from her afterwards. Neither could Glory nor Sunny.

"Sorry, Starflight. Anyways, we need a plan to rescue him from the NightWings. Who's with me?"

All four dragonets volunteered. Ferocious turned towards Webs. "And you?"

Webs wiggled a bit in the pool, closed his eyes, and said nothing. That answered Ferocious' question.

"O.K., this is what we're going to do…"


	4. Chapter 4

Frostbite and Evergreen had a pretty boring trip to the Rainforest Kingdom. They ran into no patrols at all, not even a SandWing patrol. Part of the reason was that Burn's armies is currently attacking Blaze's armies in the IceWing Kingdom further up north. Mainly, though, they have kept close to the Claws of the Clouds, but not too close that they could be spotted by the SkyWings that patrol the mountains.

Nothing happened at all.

Nothing happened, until they hit the Rainforest Kingdom.

For a while, though, nothing happened. Then, Frostbite began to feel strange, like something wasn't right, strange. Then, he noticed that he could only hear his wing beats and not Evergreen's.

Then, it hit him.

A RainWing guard lazily dragged the two IceWings to the SeaWing's room, since Queen Glory currently resides there. The IceWings were obviously knocked out with knockout darts, which were still protruding from their necks.

As he approached the room, a solid red SkyWing, with orange-red eyes, emerged from the room and looked down the hallway and straight at the guard.

The guard, a male, stopped and just lazily stared at the SkyWing, waiting for something to happen.

Then, "Who are you?" the SkyWing asked.

The guard's scales suddenly turned pure red in embarrassment. "Sunshine," the guard answered. Sunshine could obviously see the SkyWing fighting to hold down a laugh. He also made a mental note to, yet again, hit his parents for giving him such a ridiculous name.

"So, Sunshine," the SkyWing began, obviously trying to hold down a laugh, "what brings you here?"

Sunshine fought to keep his voice calm. "I'm here to see off a couple of IceWings, that I found flying above our kingdom, for whatever reason they were flying for." He then tossed both unconscious IceWings towards the SkyWing, lazily, and said, "Will you please take them to Queen Glory? I'm going to do something for my...parents."

With that, Sunshine turned around and headed towards his parents' house.

Ferocious dragged the two drugged IceWings into the room with everybody else still in it. He set the IceWings down, in front of Glory, and said, "Your're queen. You take care of them. They were-"

"I recognize the male," Glory stated plainly. "But the female will have to be identified."

Ferocious looked at the male IceWing. He did look familiar.

Then, it struck.

"Frostbite," he silently whispered to himself.

He looked at the female IceWing. Ferocious thought she was pretty, there was no other word for for her description. Ferocious decided to nudge her a bit. He reached out with a claw and nudged her a bit.

When Ferocious decided to nudge her, the IceWing was just starting to stir. When she was nudged she just started opening her eyes.

The female lashed out with her tail, but Ferocious dodged it easily. The female then lept to her feet and looked around at the strange crowd around her and asked plainly, "Where am I? Who are you?"

Her head bolted this way and that, looking at all the strange dragons that surrounded her.

"We are," Ferocious said in an obviously calm voice, "the Dragons of Destiny. So is Frostbite here."

The female stared at Ferocious. "How did you know his name?" she asked.

"Well, we did have the same dream," Ferocious responded.

"Huh?"

"I'll explain later," Ferocious insisted. "Right now, I need to know your name."

"Evergreen," the female responded slyly.  
With that, Frostbite awoke.


	5. Chapter 5

Starflight walked down the hall to the NightWing psychic training room. Soldiers flew around with a purpose beyond his analysis. It was unlike any kingdom he's been to. Everyone was serious but somehow not grumpy, just efficient. He could count the number of smiles he had seen on one claw, and those were all of the cunning, haunting, or dark variety.

As he walked inside, he scanned the room. A few NightWings were deep in thought, trying to connect to the group mind or see into the future. To his surprise, a female roughly his age was in the room too. She was the first other dragonet he'd seen in the whole kingdom.

His first thought was as to her appearance.

She was dark purple, with lighter purple wings. Her colors complemented each other perfectly. Her snout was more pointed than most dragons', and her wings were less jagged than those of normal NightWings. Her horns twisted towards each other quite a bit. The spines on her back lay on each other softly. She was the prettiest dragonet Starflight had ever seen. Everything about her was extremely attractive.

His second thought was about Sunny.

Would Sunny be upset? Would he be cheating on her by chasing after a NightWing female? Would his friends see that as making ties to an enemy, even though Glory had fallen for Deathbringer? Would Sunny think he only went after the prettiest dragons, and not even want to be his friend? Would she make the other dragonets of destiny kick him out of his destiny?

His third thought was on the topic of NightWing powers.

If the dragonet was telepathic, she would doubtlessly know how he felt about her. She would know that he was torn between her and Sunny, and certainly be able to deduce that he was desperately in love with her. If she was prophetic, she might see a vision of him professing his love to her before he was ready to do so in reality. Either way, it was an awful possibility.

He stood frozen for an entire minute before he was able to unfreeze himself. He jerkily walked over to her. "He-hello," he said uncertainly. "What's your name?" He barely managed to get the words out, and she was now looking at him. **She was looking at him!** He could barely stop himself from fainting, and he could actually feel his heart rate skyrocketing. It was a wonder he hadn't died of cardiac arrest.

She said, "I'm Fatespeaker, but we shouldn't disturb the other studiers. Let's leave." The two exited the room, and flew to a small ledge.

Once outside, she asked, "So, what's your name?" Her voice resonated sweetly through his ear, vibrating his tympanic membrane like a soft breeze. Her intelligent eyes pierced his like the sharpest spears through a fruit. Every aspect of her was beautiful.

He managed to choke out the words, "I'm S-Starflight. I'm new here." He was furious at himself. He was looking pathetic in front of the new girl of his dreams. He ordered himself,_Say something, anything! Don't lose this opportunity! You only make a first impression once, so make a good one!_ He said, "Are you practicing your powers?"

She nodded, and said, "Precognition. I have long been able to make predictions. Now I am trying to increase my accuracy. It might take a while, but it will be invaluable once I can be a seer for my tribe and the magical leader of the dragonets of destiny."

Starflight's mind went blank. She was the prettiest dragon in the world, a NightWing, magical, **and** in the prophecy? She had everything going for her! "I'm a dragonet of destiny too," he said. He immediately regretted it. It almost certainly would alienate her.

To his surprise, she grinned. "_I knew it!_ I knew our destinies were linked! It all makes sense! We have to fulfill the prophecy together!" Starflight realized. There was another team of dragonets! He and her were going to fall in love and go save the world!

Starflight said, "Awesome! Where are the other dragonets of destiny?"

Fatespeaker's expression fell, glazing over with annoyance. "Back at the prison where they belong," she muttered. "Flame, the jerk. Viper, the creep. Ochre, the idiot. And Squid, the egotistical shrimp with a powerful daddy. How about you? Who are your teammates?"

Starflight, once he realized she had asked him a question, answered, "Well, there's Tsunami, our leader. She's really bossy, but we can count on her to pull through. There's Glory, our psychotic murderer. She is a RainWing, not a SkyWing, but she can spit venom." At this, Fatespeaker's eyes widened, and she leaned in.

Starflight fought down his ecstasy at her coming closer, and he continued, "There's Clay, our bigwings. He isn't very smart, but he won't ever let us get hurt. There's me, our genius. I don't want to brag, but my friends think I might be the smartest dragon in the world. And then there's Sunny. She's a mutant SandWing." He said Sunny's name like she was an annoyance, in a desperate bid for Fatespeaker not to know that he had feelings for the former.

Fatespeaker was visibly impressed. "Sounds like you work together really well. I wish my team did. Squid's not so bad, but the other three… Let's just say I am not sorry they are still in the NightWing prison."

Starflight said, "Well, we fight a lot, but everyone cares about each other. We are like a family. Our caretakers were awful, and we had to stick together."

Fatespeaker sighed. "Anyway, it's not important now. We're in the Night Kingdom, with our own kind. We can help win the war for Blister, and fulfill our destinies."

Starflight smiled wholeheartedly, and said, "Agreed. I don't like Blister myself, but I see the reason for picking her. She's smart, at least." He hesitated, and stopped himself from saying something.

Fatespeaker said, for some reason rather shyly, "You know, you're really nice. If you're archetypical of your team, you must be really happy." Starflight grimaced, thinking of how hard this would make choosing his friends. She said, "I assume you know we are going extinct and Blister is going to save us, right?" Starflight's jaw dropped, and his mind went blank.

After a period of time unknown to Starflight, he managed to mumble, "I-wh-no-but-how?" He tried again, shouting, "WH-what!? We are? Since when?"

Fatespeaker's eyes widened. "You didn't know that? It's why we are in the war!"

Starflight realized what this meant. _Oh three moons, if I choose my friends, my entire tribe dies, and vice versa. I've spent my life with my friends, but now I'm falling for a NightWing girl and the NightWings need my help more. This is bad. Now I have to decide who I choose. And, as if that wasn't enough, the NightWing girl is probably reading my mind right now!_

He said, "Then… I have to help. I might not like Blister, but that's no reason to condemn an entire tribe to extinction, let alone my own."

Fatespeaker gave a joyous smile. "That's wonderful! I'm sure you'll help more than you know!" She flared her wings, brushing his. He narrowly stopped himself from fainting in shock, thrilled. She immediately looked away, and he thought he saw a confused expression

Starflight said, "I have something to tell you. I'm not really sure how to put it, though…"

Fatespeaker gave a deep look. "Your thoughts are muddled. I have something to tell you too, but you first."

Starflight said, nervously and uncertainly, "Ummmm… you're very pretty. And you're nice. And smart. And you have NightWing powers. I guess I might have a crush on you… I don't really know."

Fatespeaker shyly avoided his eyes. "You know, you're really smart. And you are really nice. I guess I might have a crush on you too."

Starflight's heart was beating faster than he thought biologically possible. He weakly said, "Ummm… wow… thanks!" His pupils dilated in shock. He said, "I don't have NightWing powers. I'm just a regular dragon."

Fatespeaker looked at him, and said, "If you've got the kind of brainpower I think you do, you're not even close to regular. You are just as important as any other NightWing." Starflight was suddenly very glad he wasn't a RainWing, or he might have turned bright pink from horns to tail.

Fatespeaker's eyes glazed over, and she said, distantly, "Yes. I will tell him." She returned to normal, and said, "Morrowseer wants to see you immediately. He says it's urgent to the entire tribe." She paused, and then added, "Please tell him everything."

Starflight said, "Bye, Fatespeaker. I hope I'll see you again." He took off, and flew towards the fortress. A few NightWing guards stood aside to let him go through.

Morrowseer stood imposingly in a dark room. Several other huge NightWings, heavily armored, flanked him. They didn't have the cold glare of guards, but the efficient ruthlessness of generals and scientists. The watched him as he entered. Morrowseer gave a strange look, but of praise, amusement, or anger was unknowable. "Greetings, Starflight," Morrowseer said. "I have read you had a very, very odd dream last night. I would like to discuss it with you." Starflight gulped, and thought, ''Does that mean I'm going to betray my friends? Oh no, he's reading my mind right now!'' He swallowed, hard, and said, "Yes. I will discuss it."

Morrowseer said, "Good. That makes things easier for both of us. To start off, what exactly did you hear?"

Starflight thought back to it. "Well, it turns out there are more dragons in the prophecy than we thought. Not that that means your prophecy is wrong… just…" he trailed off.

Morrowseer raised his eyebrows terrifyingly. "Are there? That is most interesting." He turned, and said to a fellow leader, "I think this calls for a modification to our plans. All in favor?" Every dragon raised a white talon.

Starflight gulped again. He said, "Essentially, not all the dragonets of the prophecy are in fact dragonets."

The NightWings gave unreadable looks, like mirrors at midnight. They peered deep, deeper than his scales. It felt like they were gifted with metaspectral light vision and could see through him.

He continued, "Of course, this isn't important, right? We'll just go fulfill the prophecy."

Morrowseer said, with his voice like talons scraping on hardened lava, "That depends. Are you still willing to help us?"

Starflight thought back to Sunny. He thought back to Glory. To Clay, Tsunami, and the RainWings. All the time his friends had helped him.

But then he thought of Fatespeaker. Of the scholars and libraries here in the Night Kingdom. When Morrowseer had saved him from the Sky Kingdom.

''Maybe… maybe I can help both my friends and my tribe,'' he thought quietly. Morrowseer didn't move, but his eyes dilated. Clearly he was thinking hard, and almost certainly reading Starflight's mind.

Starflight said, "But my friends won't be harmed, right? Please?"

Morrowseer's eyes unfocused even more. Starflight noticed a large number of the other NightWings' eyes did as well. Finally, Morrowseer replied, "I think that can be arranged."


End file.
